MANSFIELD — The nine newest officers in the Mansfield Police Department are officially students.
The city’s Board of Control on Tuesday approved spending up to $85,000 to train the officers at the North Central State College Police Academy.
Funding for the two semesters of training is in the police department’s training budget, though the proposal will still come before City Council.
MPD Assistant Chief Michael Napier told board members the first semester will cost $41,637.78 — $4,626.42 per officer.
“They are full-time students (at this point),” he said.
He said the college told him the second semester costs are yet to be determined, though it will cost at least as much as the first.
“I assume we will be billed for the first semester at the end of the first semester (and) invoiced for the second semester, (which will be) owed at the end of the 2nd semester,” Napier said.
The nine are expected to graduate in February, he said. Once they have completed the basic peace officer training, they will spend 14 weeks in the MPD’s field training officer program.
The department swore in the nine new probationary officers in August: Nathaneal E. Roseberry, Cory J. Hickman, Taylor P. Russell, Logan M. Burkhart, Noah W. Hallbrook, Collin J. Neumann, Joseph T. Renfrow, Gabriela Lopez and Zander C. Noel.
If all nine complete the training, they would bring the department nearly up to its fully-budgeted strength of 90 sworn officers. The MPD has 77 — and had three new officers recently graduate from NCSC.
Napier and Safety Service Director Keith Porch said the department chose to use NCSC instead of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Training Academy in Columbus, largely due to the number of officers being trained.
Porch said the OSHP only allows municipalities to send two officers at a time for training and has tighter entrance deadlines.
He and Napier said the training curriculum at both sites is identical and meets all requirements from the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.
The OSHP academy doesn’t charge for training, though there are costs associated with it the city would have to pay, including travel, uniforms, ammunition and overtime.
“Now when we have one or two hires, if we can meet the (OSHP) deadlines, we would want to concentrate on the state patrol (academy), due to the costs” Porch said.
